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Random Pop-Up Ad Attempts - Tablets

Sometime or another I downloaded and app from Google Play that inserted a routine to pop up and ad when I loaded another app or sub-app. It doesn't load every time, but it is getting more frequent.
I say 'attempts' because it doesn't load the ad, just a blank screen with an 'x' in the upper left hand corner.
It now seems to be working on a timer or something because it pops up in the middle of a video/game/app with no warning.

Is there some method of tracing what is going on in my system?

I have tried to delete all apps installed before this showed up to no avail. Maybe this is why I get the blank screen and not the actual add.

This goes beyond 'ad-blocker pro' (which I have). It is running outside the normal applications and is somewhere in the system. I think the original app was deleted but left this behind.
You have seen apps that popup ads between parts of their processing (between card hands, or game play, etc) This is like it but it inserts the 'X' without and advertisement between and during another app.

It makes it very difficult to play online games or do anything that requires timing. It seems to go into a timing mode when I am in an app - about 20-30 min. If running short apps, it pops up every 3-4 times and between apps.

Imagine running GPS road directions or an action game. One way or another someone is going to get hurt, Either Real or Virtually.

What I am looking for is a scanner, logger or something that I can use to spot where this is coming from and be able to identify it. At that point I might be able to delete it from the system.

This is occurring on 2 non-rooted android tablets.

Asus Nexus 7 2-gen AOS 6 M
Asus ME173X (Memo 7) AOS 4 K

I am trying to do this without a factory reset - some apps had to be installed within a limited time frame and I will not be able to replicate that again.

Wormsworth

P.S. Maybe I should call it the "[X]-Ad" Virus/Worm/Trojan/etc

P.P.S. I did not have ad blocker pro installed on my Androids - In fact, I could not find the app on Google play at all.
There was and ad blocker browser - while it was running the [X]-Ads virus showed up again a couple times.
The only ad blocker pro was for Chrome and Firefox as extensions. Android does not have extensions, just APKs.

This must be a reason this is called 'Android Questions' -- any answers????

Apps that display ads use ad network libraries to fetch and display them. The most common seems to be one called Ad Mob.

I ran an app on an older dead tablet that scanned installed apps and displayed a list of which displayed ads and what ad networks they used. This enabled me to locate the source of particularly annoying ads, and uninstall the app that was fetching them. (It was using a library other than Ad Mob.)

I can't locate it now, but there are several such things listed on the Play Store. Look at https://play.google.com/store/search...etector&c=apps and see whether one of them helps you locate the source. It sounds like whatever app it was that caused this installed the ad framework separately, and it didn't go away when the app did.
______Dennis